Kansas State football loses yet another linebacker for the rest of the season
MANHATTAN — The hits just keep coming to Kansas State football's linebacking corps.
The Wildcats, who lost both starting middle linebacker Daniel Green and freshman backup Asa Newsom early in the season, now must finish the year without junior Jake Clifton.
"Jake is going to be done for the year," K-State coach Chris Klieman confirmed Tuesday during his weekly news conference. "We hate to lose him, but he'll be done for the year, and we'll go with Austin Romaine at Mike (middle) backer."
Clifton, who had started two of the last three games, suffered an injury early in the second quarter of Saturday's 59-25 victory over Baylor and did not return. Romaine, who took over at middle linebacker when Green got hurt in the third game of the season, is listed as the starter for this Saturday's 6 p.m. Sunflower Showdown against Kansas in Lawrence.
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The loss of Clifton stings because he had raised his game since returning from an early-season injury to beat out Romaine for the starting job in the middle. Not only that, but he was the Wildcats' most versatile linebacker, also spelling Austin Moore and Desmond Purnell at the two outside spots.
On a positive note, sophomore Rex Van Wyhe saw extensive action against Baylor and recorded three tackles, including one for loss. Van Wyhe, a transfer from Central Iowa Community College, can play the rest of the season without sacrificing his redshirt status and is now Moore's backup at Will linebacker, allowing Beau Palmer to move back to the middle.
"I thought Rex played really well, but he's in that four-game window, so he'll be in there," Klieman said. "Beau Palmer will be in there as well, so we'll go with who we have."
A new rule enacted at the end of last year, allows players to participate in four regular-season games plus the postseason while still preserving their redshirts.
Clifton was coming off his most productive game of the season at Texas, where he recorded eight tackles, including one for loss, and is currently eighth on the team with 24 stops despite missing two full games.
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"You think you have good depth at linebacker until you lose a bunch of them," Klieman said. "And now we're really thin there.
"But it's fun to see guys like Rex Van Wyhe (and) Beau Palmer that take all these practice reps, learn from Daniel (Green), learn from Austin (Moore), learn from Des (Purnell, starting Sam linebacker) and have to apply that on game day."
Klieman also said Tuesday that Terry Kirksey, a transfer from Hutchinson Community College is out of the picture because of an injury and will redshirt.
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football linebacker Jake Clifton is done for the year
